No one tabulates
the death
our highways score
or counts
the blood droplets
as plasma evaporates
crusting rusty
hemoglobin
on the asphalt.

Even that
relatively empty
stretch of I-25
from Raton
to Las Vegas
New Mexico
produces enough
red blotches
to cause a soul
to consider
the highway
has acne
and no Clearasil
or other cure
to un-blemish
a surface.

If you doze
near Wagon Mound
and your car
spits gravel
going into
the soft shoulder
and then flip-flops
end over end
gravity eventually eliminates
momentum’s force.
It may be hours
before anyone notices
the absence
of your vehicle
from the road
until the crows
or turkey vultures
begin to circle.

copyright © 2021 Kenneth P. Gurney